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| 20 February 2001 I apologize for taking so long to write again. I made a quick trip to DC and North Carolina in mid-January to see family and to take care of some things that I had left pending and so was busy after my last letter preparing for that trip and then recovering from it following my return to Dili on January 26. The biggest news from here is that I finally have a place of my own: a decent-sized furnished room and ample bathroom (including shower, which is somewhat unusual here, but not including hot water, which would be quite unusual here) in a small apartment complex next door to the place I house-sat from 28 December through 10 January. There�s a photo of the entrance to the complex on my home page, www.geocities.com/j_ray_kennedy/index.html (If you�ve missed any of my earlier letters, I�ve placed links to them on that page as well.) There�s a shared kitchen with lots of counter space, a double sink, and eight gas burners; a shared laundry room, a water pump (handy for those times when the city water system has no pressure), and a (very loud) generator. I�m glad to have been keeping my eye on the place almost since I arrived in October � it filled up almost immediately as soon as they opened it and even before all the renovation work was complete. They�re still working out some minor problems, but overall it�s pretty pleasant for Dili. The apartment is about a mile from the office, and I�m finally getting some regular exercise walking to work most mornings. (I�m happy to report that missing storm drain covers are being replaced these days, thanks apparently to the administration of Dili District and the US Support Group for East Timor.) There is a new supermarket about two blocks away, and the new ANZ Bank branch is about a block further. I�m also about two blocks from the waterfront road that runs past many of the foreign missions here. (Living near �Embassy Row� and being able to walk to work - it�s almost like being home in DC!!!) If you�re wondering how I make it to work when I don�t walk, I did finally go for my driving test and occasionally have a vehicle to get around in. Driving a right-hand-drive (i.e., left-hand shifting!) minivan has taken some getting used to, but I�m pretty comfortable with it now. (Though I have to say that I agree with our driver � most Timorese have no real idea how to drive � and would even add that many of the internationals are not much better. Apparently, during Indonesian times it was easy to buy or bully one�s way into a driver�s license. I�ve also mentioned in earlier letters the problems caused by the absence of traffic lights and off-street parking....) The minivan has been especially handy for getting to the main �home store� in Dili, which is a fair distance out of downtown on the way to the airport. They have everything from wine and soft drinks to plumbing and electrical supplies, beds, wardrobe cabinets, stereo systems, refrigerators, barbecue grills, fans, and office supplies. It�s an amazing place in the midst of everything else here. One of the things that worries me about life here is � believe it or not � garbage. While consumer goods are flooding in from Australia, with all of their elaborate packaging, the Timorese� main way of disposing of garbage is burning. If the only things they were burning were organic material � food, paper, etc � that would one thing, but these days there�s lots of plastic and styrofoam being burned as well. I keep wondering how best to dispose of used batteries so that they don�t end up exploding in some fire somewhere. I�m very happy, on the other hand, to report that since 1 February, TVTL (TV Timor Lorosa�e) has been broadcasting full time. We may only have one channel, but we get programs in four languages! Most of TVTL�s programming is from BBC, Portugal�s RTP, and Indonesia, but I�ve also seen local news and sports programs in Tetum produced here in Dili. The TV and radio antennas were knocked out for a few days last week by a strong storm that came through, but they�re both now back on the air. I�ve also discovered several other radio stations (the minivan has a radio, which our other vehicles did not) including an Australian one, and I�ve finally located Voice of America on my shortwave radio as well. Our small planning team has completed its work, and we�re now in the process of welcoming some 30 new colleagues here in headquarters. My title will be changing to �Chief of Technical Services,� and I�ll be overseeing the managers for Capacity Building, Voter Education, Procedures, Public Information/External Relations, and Information Technology � everything except Operations and Logistics. We�ll also soon be welcoming some 60 or so new colleagues who will be staffing our 13 district offices throughout East Timor. (I�ve finally found a good online map of East Timor at www.unhcr.ch/refworld/maps/pacific/timo9909.htm) To handle all of the new headquarters staff, we�ll be expanding into two �Kobe houses,� or temporary buildings, across the street from our current offices, so I�ll be moving my desk yet again. Taking you back to where I left off last time, on Christmas Eve, driving back from a party about an hour west of town, I saw dozens of people huddled around roadside nativity scenes they and their neighbors had built. I had seen quite a few being built but thought they were just decorative. As it turns out, they function more like our Christmas trees or even church altars, with people gathering to re-tell the Christmas story and to worship. It was a very moving experience for me. On Christmas Day, after coming to the office to check e-mail, I went to a Christmas cookout given by the friends for whom I would later be house sitting for two weeks. Their Timorese neighbors were there with their kids, and after dinner the kids lined up on the porch and sang carols in English, Portuguese, Indonesian, and Tetum -- very impressive and very heartwarming. Photos of the kids and of two of the nativity scenes are among the recent photos on my website. There have been several incidents of violence since then, but I�ve fortunately not been around any of them. On New Year�s Eve, the owner of a popular nightclub apparently got into a fight with a Timorese, and the situation quickly escalated to the point that the police held all of the internationals inside while they tried to calm the angry Timorese crowd outside. The final outcome was several police injuries and dozens of smashed UN vehicles. I had decided to say good night to my colleagues after we finished dinner at the Thai restaurant near the office, so I was safe in bed during the disturbance. In another incident that night, some local youths started throwing rocks at the Mosque - apparently over a dispute with a cab driver. A week or two later, two rival youth groups confronted each other on the main road over on the other side of town. The police had to use helicopters to track and capture some of the instigators in the hills. More recently, students at the university took exception to how some riot police were treating a cab driver who was stopped for driving the wrong way in front of the university. Rocks flew for a while before more police arrived and calmed things down. If I can editorialize for a moment, all of this underscores the importance of cultural sensitivity as well as common sense. �Difficult situations� have a tendency to get out of hand quickly here in East Timor, so it�s best to avoid situations that could become difficult. That�s one of the reasons I resisted even getting my driver�s license for so long. Even hitting one of the many chickens that are determined to cross the roads here can lead to personal injury and smashed windows. I sense that many Timorese are offended by the conspicuous consumption by the international community, so I don�t go to too many parties and am usually one of the first to leave those that I do attend. �Reconciliation,� though, is a big word around here these days; a Truth & Reconciliation Commission similar to the one that was set up in South Africa after the end of apartheid is in the process of being established here. There were hundreds of passes issued to refugees in West Timor for �come see� holiday visits to East Timor. The idea behind these visits is that there is a lot of disinformation in West Timor about how things are on our side of the border, and that the best way to combat that disinformation is by inviting people to come and see for themselves. The Transitional Administration is also negotiating with a number of militia leaders in West Timor who have expressed an interest in returning home. A boatload of Timorese who worked in various positions for the Indonesian government also returned to East Timor, landing in the eastern port of Com several weeks ago. Apart from some minor heckling at the dock, things seem to have gone well with their resettlement. The UN Development Program also just sponsored a two-day symposium on Rights, Tolerance, and Elections, where I spoke on the topic of how the choice of an electoral system can affect individual rights. We have been working with the Political Affairs Committee of the National Council (the appointed transitional legislature) since the committee was established in mid-December. I wrote a series of eight working papers on electoral systems to help them familiarize themselves with the issues and options involved. They are now finalizing their report to the full Council, which will consider it later this week. Soon after that, we should have a better idea of when the election will be and what the ground rules for it will be. I have to say that working with the committee has probably been the most rewarding part of my work here so far. The members are very interested and hard-working. They�ve asked lots of good questions and come a long way in their understanding of the ins and outs of electoral systems - very technical stuff that would turn most people off. I also gave a two-day workshop recently in Portuguese for about 250 CNRT (the umbrella pro-independence organization) activists from all over East Timor. One unfortunate obstacle that we ran up against was language � while most of the CNRT folks speak or at least understand Portuguese, some of the younger ones do not. People who are 35 or younger had most or all of their schooling in Indonesian and so are not comfortable in Portuguese. Language has proven to be one of the biggest headaches for UNTAET � the demands on the mission�s small translation staff are overwhelming, and the turnaround time on written translations slows everything down significantly. It is going to be interesting to see if we can even find any translators for our headquarters or district offices � anyone with good English skills has in all likelihood already been hired by UNTAET, another international organization, or one of the many NGOs around. That�s it for this installment � I hope you�re well! Ray |
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